Man convicted in Hemet police booby trap attacks

Jurors were deadlocked on a 12th charge - the attempted murder of a different detective.

Nicholas John Smit, 41, was found guilty Monday of several bizarre attacks that included improvised booby traps and the firing of a World War II-era bazooka at a police station.

Authorities said the attacks were focused on a detective in Hemet who had arrested Smit on a drug charge in 2009.

Over the next six months, members of that detective's anti-gang task force were targeted in several suspicious incidents, including arsons and attempted shootings.

In one instance, natural gas was rerouted into the office of a
gang task force and rigged to explode. In the bazooka attack, a
training rocket was fired from the roof of a nearby market and
started a small fire.

Smit faces multiple life terms in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Dec. 2.